A mother shared the final texts from her son who was killed in the Orlando nightclub shooting

For no reason other than irrational hatred, in the early hours of yesterday morning, a heavily armed gunman stormed a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida and proceeded to shoot dead 50 innocent people, injuring another 53. The victims had been celebrating Pride at the time.

And the mother of one of the victims, Mina Justice, had to endure the receipt of a series of texts from her terrified son, Eddie, who was hiding in the nightclub toilets from the gunman Omar Mateen.

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The first text 30-year-old Eddie sent his mum at 2.06am - six minutes after Mateen stormed Pulse, the nightclub - read: "Mommy I love you."

He soon added: "In club they shooting." At this point, Mina tried calling her son, but to no avail, and instead resorted to texting asking him if he was okay. "Trapp in bathroom," he responded.

Two minutes after his first text, Eddie - clearly terrified - told his mother: "I'm gonna die," to which his mum replied:

Friends mourn the loss of their loved ones near the scene of the shooting

Mina began to panic when Eddie didn't text back, so she messaged again asking if he was with the police. "No," he replied after four minutes. "Still here in bathroom. He has us. They need to come get us."

At 2:49 am, Mina texted Eddie to tell him the police were at the club. "Hurry. He's in the bathroom with us," Eddie wrote back.

"Is the man in the bathroom wit u?" Mina replied.

And at 2.50am, the final texts from Eddie were sent: "He's a terror. Yes."

Vigils have been held across America and the rest of the world to remember the dead

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It's unimaginable how horrifying it must have been for Eddie and the others trapped in the bathroom with him, and how helpless his mother must have felt, knowing she was receiving the last, panicked communication from her son.

In response to the atrocities we've witnessed in Orlando - which has become the biggest mass shooting in America's history - numerous public figures have come out to send their, thoughts, prayers, condolences and messages of support to all those affected.